As chairman of an organization tasked with supervising the legislature, I feel it is my responsibility to inform the general public of the content of our work.
Beginning with this legislative session, Citizen Congress Watch has compiled statistics of legislators’ attendance rates, meeting times and the number of times legislators have spoken at those meetings based on the Legislative Yuan Gazette and the legislative agenda.
We are doing this to inform the general public of what our legislators do in the legislature.
Simple, quantified data will of course not suffice to reflect the quality of a legislator.
This, however, does not mean that statistics are useless, because they tell us the difference between possible and actual attendance rates, possible and actual instances when a legislator speaks up and the possible and actual number of propositions they put forward.
The quantitative benchmarks we decided on — attendance, number of times a legislator speaks at a meeting, meeting times and submitted propositions — were arrived at after holding a dozen forums on legislative supervision in order to include a wide array of suggestions and thus arrive at the fairest possible indexes that give the best reflection of a legislator’s performance.
We used the same procedure to establish our qualitative benchmarks — content of proposed bills, statements and behavior.
The quantitative benchmarks are statistically calculated and experts will perform objective statistical analysis so that every measure is taken to ensure that the data best reflect the performance of every legislator.
Data for the qualitative benchmarks will come from a diversity of sources and be studied and analyzed by public representatives and academics with expertise in the associated fields in an attempt to present a result that is as objective as possible.
A legislator’s duty is to create well-being for the general public, and legislators must place the common interest of the general public above their personal interests.
This is our most fundamental demand of a legislator.
In Taiwan’s political environment, legislators are often required to participate in various activities to build rapport with voters, and one reason often given for low legislative attendance rates is that “a legislator has to stand together with the public.”
We do not want our legislators to pretend to be morally superior, but when it comes to allocating their time, a legislator must decide which is more important.
After all, isn’t forgoing legislative meetings to attend various activities to build rapport with voters based on re-election concerns?
And doesn’t that mean that the legislator is placing his or her own interests above the interests of the general public?
We are very pleased that people are beginning to pay attention to our legislative evaluations, and we are happy to explain our methods to the general public and promote a widening understanding of why it is important to monitor the legislature.
This is a major undertaking that requires the participation and effort of more people.
On Aug. 31, we will hold a meeting to present our evaluation of the current legislative session and everyone who is interested is welcome to attend.
Ku Chung-hwa is chairman of Citizen Congress Watch.
TRANSLATED BY PERRY SVENSSON
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